Main Differences Between Airbnb and HomeAway
Some of the best places for photoshoots are the hotels. You can have a comfortable setting for the session and keep the room for yourself afterwards as a weekend or weekday getaway! Make it an event, because you are definitely worth it.
You can also find marvellous homes and apartments for the weekend on sites such as Airbnb and HomeAway.
If you intend on getting a hotel room, one of the best hotel search engines is Booking.com. You can find rooms, apartments holiday homes and pretty much any other type of accommodation.
HomeAway has better reviews because they allow renters to post a review up to a year from the time of booking. Airbnb has a 14-day time limit, which reduces the number of reviews. Sometimes people need more time to settle back in at home after their getaway before writing up all their holiday reviews. This is quite possibly the main reason why HomeAway gets the most helpful reviews.
Ah, and now for the infamous service fees! They seem to creep up on us everywhere if we aren’t careful. HomeAway’s guest fee is between 6-12%. AirBnB’s service fee is anywhere from 0-20%, which is indeed a huge gap. However, as the percentages may vary from one site to the other, the fees generally come to be about the same when you carefully compare the two sites for the same listing. But while the percentages vary greatly, the average fee comes to the same for similar listings.
HomeAway Insurance And Last Minute Cancellations
HomeAway has the advantage of offering insurance due to last-minute cancellations. The worst case possible: You arrive at your destination only to find that your host has decided to cancel your reservation!
With Airbnb, it appears to be a common, yet unfortunate issue. They even make you fend for yourself with little assistance from Airbnb. This is not the kind of problem you want to deal with while on vacation or any other time for that matter! You will most certainly get a refund, but you’re out of lodging and need to rebook last-minute. That means paying full price and then some! Need an additional headache, I wouldn’t think so! HomeAway offers insurance with its Book With Confidence Guarantee, which is clearly superior to Airbnb in that situation. This service includes not just a refund but rebooking assistance in case of last-minute cancellations. This is all in line with keeping your costs down, without any additional fees.
When to Use HomeAway Over Airbnb
Is there really any reason to choose one over the other?
HomeAway does offer better cancellation insurance. They both provide similar listings, are reputable companies to deal with and provide related services. The best tip I can propose to you is when you are searching for a particular listing, you will more often than not find it on both sites. Quickly compare the two listings on each site and take it from there.
Simple!